Robert Redford and Nick Nolte to Star in Adaptation of A WALK IN THE WOODS

Earlier today, Legendary Pictures made the officially announced development on a Jackie Robinson biopic, a project that was first reported in early April. There is an apparent discrepancy between the initial report, which suggested Robert Redford will star as Branch Rickey, and the press release which failed to mention Redford’s name at all. 24 Frames, the source of the Redford-centric news, asked around to see if something changed since the story was sent to print. A rep from Redford’s camp declined to comment; a Legendary spokeswoman stated, simply, there is “no casting announcement at this time.” The outlet believes Redford is still attached, and the news will surface in a more official capacity at a later date.

In consolation, 24 Frames offers information on Redford’s next project, an adaptation of the Bill Bryson book A Walk in the Woods. Redford first announced that he would produce and star as the fictional Bryson in A Walk in the Woods in 2005. At the time, he longed for a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid reunion with Paul Newman before he died in 2008. Newman is the very definition of irreplaceable, but as far as replacements go, you can’t do much better than Nick Nolte. Nolte is now attached to play Bryson’s friend Stephen as the two out-of-shape men venture to walk the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail. Christopher Columbus and Barry Levinson have each been mentioned as possible directors in the past, but it’s not specified if either might return to the project. Read the official book synopsis after the break.

“Not long after I moved with my family to a small town in New Hampshire, I happened upon a path that vanished into a wood on the edge of town.”

So begins Bill Bryson’s hilarious book A Walk in the Woods. Following his return to America after twenty years in Britain, Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The AT, as it’s affectionately known to thousands of hikers, offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes–and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to test his own powers of ineptitude, and to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.

For a start, there’s the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa who accompanies the similarly unfit Bryson on the trail. Once Bryson and Katz settle into their stride, it’s not long before they come across the fabulously annoying Mary Ellen, whose disappearance ruins a perfectly good slice of pie, a gang of Ralph Lauren-attired yuppies from whom Katz appropriates a key piece of equipment, and a security guard in Pennsylvania who, for no ascertainable reason, impounds Bryson’s car. Mile by arduous mile these latter-day pioneers walk America, along the way surviving the threat of bear attacks, the loss of key provisions, and everything else this awe-inspiring country can throw at them. [Amazon]